Rush hour at a quick-service restaurant isn’t one job, it’s four running at once: someone on the register, someone on the line, someone working the drive-thru window, and a shift lead who has to be on the floor the entire time the store is open — not just during the manager’s hours.
Five demands, cross-trained crew
The restaurant sample models Cashier, Kitchen, and DriveThru as three separate volume demands, each weighted higher during the lunch and dinner rush. Manager is a concurrent presence demand that only needs covering part of the day; ShiftLead is the same kind of demand but needed every hour the store is open, filled by whoever’s senior enough and already on shift. The trick that actually closes the coverage gap is cross-training in the skills table: a couple of crew members are tagged as both DriveThru and ShiftLead capable, so the solver doesn’t need a dedicated body standing around just to satisfy the presence requirement — whoever’s running the window that hour can BE the shift lead.
Why drive-thru gets its own line
A lot of scheduling tools lump drive-thru into “cashier.” During rush, that’s two people working two different stations at the same time, and treating them as one pool understates how many bodies you actually need on the floor. Splitting them into separate demands is what makes the resulting schedule match what actually happens on a Friday night.
Try it with a restaurant sample already loaded
The built-in sample is a 13-person crew covering a 10am–11pm, 7-day operation — cashier, kitchen, drive-thru, manager, and shift lead coverage, with a few people qualified across two or three stations.
Open the restaurant scheduler — no signup. Swap in your own crew and demand numbers once you’ve watched it solve.
What it needs from you
Hourly demand by station (cashier, kitchen, drive-thru), who’s available when, and who’s trained on what. Break rules and weekly hour caps are parameters you set once. The solver handles the actual station-by-station, hour-by-hour arranging — including making sure someone senior is always on the floor.
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